


Sick Day

by syzygy_mellifluous



Series: New Dream Appreciation Week [4]
Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, idk if it's really even hurt/comfort but here it is lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:27:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24290545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/syzygy_mellifluous/pseuds/syzygy_mellifluous
Summary: Rapunzel catches a cold and Eugene blows it out of proportion.
Relationships: Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel
Series: New Dream Appreciation Week [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1749514
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	Sick Day

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! This is my contribution for Day 4 of New Dream Appreciation Week - Hurt/Comfort! If I’m being completely honest, I don’t really know what hurt/comfort is lol. I’m not a big fanfic reader, so I’m totally out of my element with this one. I tried to do some research and it's still not really clear to me lol. Whatever it is, I’m not sure that this is it XD. I hope you enjoy it anyway!

When Eugene woke up that morning, he knew instantly that something was wrong. Rapunzel was still sleeping and she _always_ woke up before he did. He immediately glanced at the clock and saw that it was past ten in the morning. It definitely was _not_ like her to still be sleeping this late, even though it was a Saturday. She was also snoring - something else that she never did. 

“Rapunzel?” He whispered, but she didn’t answer. 

He was having an out-of-body experience, for sure. Hesitantly, he poked her arm a few times and she stirred.

“What’s wrong?” She mumbled, her voice laden with sleep.

“Are you alright?”

“Mhmm,” she sniffled, her eyes fluttering open. She rubbed at her nose a few times. “Just a little tired.”

“You sound congested,” he pointed out. 

She sniffled again, but shook her head. “I’m not.”

“Liar!” He exclaimed, hearing it in her voice. “You’re sick.”

“I’m fine,” she insisted, starting to sit up. “I have a lot to do today.”

“Uh-uh,” he said, grabbing her wrist. “Yesterday you said your throat felt a little weird and today you’re sniffling? You should stay in bed and rest.”

As if on cue, she sneezed. “Fine, I _may_ have a cold. But, I’ll live.”

“You’re staying right here and I won’t take no for an answer. You need tea, soup, and rest. And cold medicine, for sure, if we have it. But even if we don’t, I can go get some.”

She rolled her eyes. “Eugene, you’re overreacting. Besides, Christmas is less than two weeks away and I still have a lot of errands to run.”

“I can run your errands for you, if you want,” he said, and she sneezed again. And again. “You can’t go around spreading germs to the unsuspecting public.”

“You act like I’m the first person in history to have a cold,” she smirked. 

“This is the first time you’ve been sick since we’ve been together, and you’ve _always_ taken care of me when I was sick. Now it’s my turn to dote on you.”

She sighed. “Fine, but just this once. Would you mind bringing me a box of tissues?”

“Anything you need,” he promised, jumping out of the bed. 

He ran to the bathroom and dug through the cabinet, looking for the aforementioned cold medicine, but as he predicted, they didn’t have any. He grabbed the tissues that she requested, and brought them back to her. 

“Your tissues,” he said, as he handed her the box. “Now, we don’t have any cold stuff, so I’ll take a trip to the drug store after I get you some breakfast and tea.”

She took a tissue out and wiped at her nose. “That’s already too much.”

“Just let me take care of you, woman!” 

She smiled at him. “Fine, fine.”

He did as he promised, and brought her breakfast and tea to the bedroom. He had planned on staying there and watching her until she shooed him away, so instead he commanded her to stay in bed and ventured out into the frigid cold to get her medicine from the pharmacy. He spent a long time in the aisle, trying to figure out what to get. It wasn’t until after a consultation with the pharmacist that he picked out two different types of cold tablets, aspirin, cough syrup, saline solution, a bag of lozenges, and more tissues.

He was completely expecting Rapunzel to be asleep when he returned from the store, and was shocked that, instead, she was sitting up in bed; one of her legs was bent at the knee and she was using it as leverage to draw in her sketchpad. 

“What are you doing up?” He asked.

She looked up and furrowed her eyebrows together. “Drawing?”

“You’re _supposed_ to be resting, sunshine.”

“You’re acting like I just had major surgery. I have a _cold_ ; I’m completely capable of going on about my day like I normally would, but because you’re _insisting_ that I stay in bed, I’m drawing.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Creative interpretation of the rules. Alright, I’ll give you that one.”

“I should’ve snuck out while you were at the store,” she muttered under her breath.

“What was that?”

“Nothing,” she smiled sweetly. 

He glanced over at the nightstand. “Where are your dirty dishes?”

“I washed them.”

“Rapunzel!”

“What?”

“You were supposed to leave them for me.”

“You’re really blowing this out of proportion, Eugene.”

“And you’re the worst patient, ever,” he remarked, just in time for her to reach for a tissue and sneeze. “See! You’ve sneezed, like a dozen times.”

“I’ve sneezed _once_ since you got back.”

“Well, it’s a good thing I got you all of this cold medicine,” he said, as he dropped the contents of the bag onto the bed.

She gasped. “That’s so much! I thought you were _just_ going to get cold medicine.”

“Um, no. I talked to the pharmacist.”

“He told you to buy all of this?” She questioned, picking up a bottle. “I don’t even have a cough!”

“That’s a ‘just in case’ thing. But the saline is to help clear your sinuses. The lozenges are for your throat, obviously. The aspirin and tissues are also self explanatory. And one of those packets is a decongestant, the other one is an expectorant.”

She raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest. “So your trip to the pharmacy also included a lesson in pharmaceuticals.”

“I, personally, think that it’s _wise_ to be educated on how different drugs work.”

“You’re a dork,” she giggled. “And seriously, most of this is so unnecessary.”

He turned his nose up. “Well, at least we’ll have it if one of us needs it in the future.”

“I appreciate your preparedness.”

He reached over and plucked the sketchpad out of her hands. 

“Hey!” She exclaimed.

He raised a finger. “No protests. Take your medicine and get some rest.”

“Am I supposed to just lay here and twiddle my thumbs?”

“No, you’re supposed to sleep.”

She sighed. “Eugene, I can’t fall asleep on command. Don’t you think this is starting to get a little excessive?”

He shook his head. “You should at least _try_ to sleep,” he answered, opening up one of the boxes of cold medicine and popping out a pill. “Here, take this.”

She accepted the pill, and swallowed it. “Do you need to check my mouth to make sure I’m not hiding it under my tongue?” She jested, sinking lower in the bed.

“No,” he sassed, in a high-pitched, mocking tone. He picked up the sheets from where they were resting near the foot of the bed and laid them on top of her, tucking them around her shoulders. “I’ll be back to check on you in a little while.”

“Okay,” she sighed.

* * *

When he came to check on her a few hours later, she was laying awake, with her hands folded over her abdomen.

“Did you sleep?”

“Nope,” she gave him a smug, ‘I told you so’ look.

“What did you do that entire time?”

“Died of boredom,” she jeered. 

He glared at her. “Haha, very funny.”

“I played with my phone.”

He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Well, I’m going to order Chinese food so I can get you some soup.”

She instantly perked up. “Ooh, will you please get me some lo mein instead?”

He gave her an odd look, almost as if he wasn’t expecting her to throw a wrench in his plans.

“Come on, you should be happy that I have an appetite!” She exclaimed in an exasperated tone. 

“You’re right, you’re right,” he agreed, lifting his hands in defeat. “I’ll just get you both.”

“But I don’t even want soup,” she whined. He wasn’t listening to a word she said.

“It’ll make you feel better,” he assured her, turning away.

“I don’t even feel that bad! My nose is a little stuffy and my throat is a little scratchy. That’s it.”

But it was too late; he had already left the room and she could hear him on the phone with the restaurant. She was incredibly frustrated with the entire situation; she didn’t want to be cooped up in bed all day when she didn’t feel horrible, and she wanted him to _listen_ to what she was saying.

After a very quiet dinner, Eugene announced that he was going to relax on the couch so that Rapunzel could continue to ‘rest’ without any distractions. She found herself restless, as predicted, and decided that she needed to talk to him about how he treated her all day.

“Eugene, we have to talk,” she said, as she entered the living room. 

“What are you doing out of bed?”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m not bedridden, I have a _cold_.”

“You should be resting.”

“We need to talk,” she repeated, sitting down next to him on the couch.

His eyebrows furrowed together. “What’s wrong?”

“So, I just want to start off by saying that I am _very_ appreciative of you and so, so grateful that you’re willing to take care of me when I don’t feel well, but -”

“But?”

“At any point today, did you stop and consider how I felt?”

“Of course, that’s why I got you all that stuff from the pharmacy, and -”

“No, Eugene. How _I_ felt? Did you take my feelings into account? Or what I wanted?”

He didn’t answer right away, so she continued. 

“I know that I’m a little under the weather, but you were acting like I was incapacitated,” she said, taking his hand in her own. “I know you were trying to do the right thing today, but I can get out of bed, or draw, or do the dishes. You were too busy trying to make me feel better that you didn’t think to ask what would make me feel better.”

He frowned. “Look, I’m really sorry, Rapunzel. I didn’t mean to make you feel bad, I’ve just never taken care of a sick person before and I thought I was doing the right thing. And you've always taken such great care of me, so I wanted to do the same for you.”

“I know. And I promise that I’m not mad or anything, but it is a little frustrating when you tell someone you feel okay and they don’t listen to you. Like with dinner tonight; I told you that I didn’t want soup but you got it anyway. Or when you took away my sketchpad.”

His eyes grew sadder. “I’m sorry, sunshine.”

“Don’t be sorry. It was probably better that I didn’t run my errands today, and I really appreciate that brought the entire pharmacy here. But next time, if I say that I feel well enough to get out of bed, please take my word for it.”

He nodded. 

“I think it’s partially my fault, too. I was insistent that I was fine, which isn’t completely true.”

“So, what we learned today is that we need to communicate with each other. And listen when the other person is speaking.”

“Exactly,” she nodded, smiling. “And I promise that I’m really not a difficult patient. Do you know what would’ve made me feel better?”

“What?” He asked, dumbfounded. 

“This,” she mumbled, curling her legs up on the couch and leaning her head on his chest. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

“I promise that next time I’ll ask you what you want instead of just assuming what’s best.”

“Much appreciated. And just as a forewarning, next time you get sick, I’m _totally_ going to torture you,” she giggled, and then craned her neck to look up at him. “Just kidding.”

“Oh, you _better_ be kidding,” he warned. “Or else.”

“Or else, what?” She asked, quirking an eyebrow.

“Guess you’ll just have to wait and find out,” he shrugged. “But, one thing I can tell you is that I happen to know that I’m absolutely adorable when I’m all sick and pitiful.”

“Are you now?” She smirked.

“Oh, yes. You of all people should know that - you’ve taken care of me when I was sick.”

“Mm, last time you were sick you were kind of whiny,” she teased, looking away.

He gasped dramatically, playing along. “I was not!” 

She smiled. “Were too. But don’t worry, it _was_ kind of adorable.”


End file.
